Friday, October 26, 2012

When I was asked to join some of my fellow foodies on
YouTube, to produce a video for a special seasonal playlist called “Halloween Sweet Treats,” I sat down and considered all thescary sweets
recipes in my repertoire. After several minutes of deep thought, I realized I
had nothing.

Not to sound like a curmudgeon, but sticking broken pretzels
into a marshmallow and calling it a “scary spider,” just isn’t my thing. So,
instead of trying to figure out how to make a chocolate truffle look like a
bleeding eyeball, Imade a batch of pumpkin cinnamon rolls. They may not be
scary (what’s the opposite of scary?), but they are seasonal, and incredibly
delicious.

I used to joke that when Halloween/Thanksgiving time rolls
around, the only thing a chef has to do to make a recipe seasonal is to add
some pumpkin to it. Chili with a spoon of pumpkinstirred in? Halloween
chili! Dinner rolls with a spoon of pumpkin kneaded into the dough?
Thanksgiving dinner rolls!

Well, that’s exactly what I did here, and while it may be
formulaic, it also produced the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever tasted. One key
is a nice soft, sticky dough. Be sure to only add enough flour so that the
dough just barely pulls away from the side of the bowl as it kneads.

You can certainly embellish by adding some chopped walnuts
or pecans to the cinnamon-sugar layer, but since I decided to garnish with
pumpkin seeds, I went sans nuts. Anyway,
despite not being very horrifying, these really would make aspecial treat at
any Halloween party. I hope you give these a try soon. Enjoy!

Could you leave out all of the pumpkin ingredients (spices/puree) and have a standard cinnamon roll? Or is this recipe designed with the pumpkin puree in mind, in terms of the final texture of the dough?

Pro tip:We used to make cinnamon rolls at work for breakfast and you can prepare them up to the point of the second rise(after they've rolled)butter some disposable muffin tins and stick one roll a piece in each cup and freeze the tin to be pulled out as needed(it was a cute little 12 table restaurant)So we'd pull out a tray of 6 every morning,thaw it,then proof it,and then bake as a part of morning prep.Cool idea that can be transferred to home if you ever want to surprise houseguests without all the work while entertaining.Not to mention you could double the batch since this is kinda a pain to assemble.

I have never... just... oh my! I'll be making these to bring to work on Monday!

Is there any way of making these into mini cinnamon rolls to get more out of them (to feed more people)? If so, would that affect the baking time. I imagine it would need less baking time, but by how much?

Chef, I've been watching your videos on YouTube and visiting your website for years. I'm in awe, although not surprised, at how your views, subscribers and fans have grown exponentially. It's just incredible to see SO MANY views on your videos. I don't know of any other YouTube cooking shows that have achieved that.

Oh, thanks so much for putting the pinterest button on!!!! I so wished that it was there so many times but figured you had a reason for not having it. Hate to say it but you are now going to be all over Pinterest!!!! Thanks L.Hitt!!!

Hi Chef John. My dough is doing it's first rise now, but I'm a bit concerned. I ended up using at least a cup of flour less than what the recipe calls for. Is that normal? I read and re-read the ingredients list to make sure I didn't miss anything.

I just basically scooped and scraped the top of the cup with a knife...but I thought a cup less was odd - even allowing for humidity etc.....we'll see - just finished the second rise and is now in the oven. The dough rolled out fine though. Fingers crossed

Came out awesome!! My 4 year old even ate one.....dunno what happened as far as the flour goes, but I figured I had the right texture dough based on what you described and showed. I just have to roll tighter next time. I will absolutely make these again!! Thx.

I had the same issue as the last post. After 3 cups of flour, the dough was quite dry. I added more cream and another 1/4 cups of flour (3.25 cups total). It's on the first rise now. I'm hoping for the best! :)

for the folks who were sad about not having the pinmarklet- download the pinmarklet button for your toolbar, then you can pin from ANY website (with a photo, anyway). i've been pinning chef john for quite a while now using that button. =)

I love your videos and blog. I just made this recipe (my dough is rising now) I didn't add the pumpkin. As i was reading the comments, I didn't know I was suppose to add 1/2 cup of milk or something else. I only watched the video and decided to try it. So I'm guessing my cinnamon rolls are going to be hard and dry :( THANX for the recipe

I love your videos and blog. I just made this recipe (my dough is rising now) I didn't add the pumpkin. As i was reading the comments, I didn't know I was suppose to add 1/2 cup of milk or something else. I only watched the video and decided to try it. So I'm guessing my cinnamon rolls are going to be hard and dry :( THANX for the recipe

I love your videos and blog. I just made this recipe (my dough is rising now) I didn't add the pumpkin. As i was reading the comments, I didn't know I was suppose to add 1/2 cup of milk or something else. I only watched the video and decided to try it. So I'm guessing my cinnamon rolls are going to be hard and dry :( THANX for the recipe

Just finished making these and I have to concur with the other two posters about the quantity of flour. I ended up using just shy of 3 cups of flour(leveled, unpacked). My kitchen was quite cold, not sure if that had anything to do with it though. They came out great anyway!

Dear Chef John. . .by any chance. . is the REASON not to make the night before and then bake the day after. . due to the fact that these rolls become more BREAD like? If so I found my answer to why these keep coming out like bread rolls. .yummy but not fluffy like yours. . Or can you tell me what i am doing wrong that causes mine to form a harder crust and bread like texture on the inside ? ? ?

You are an answer to my cooking prayers. I have been wanting to learn how to make different types of bread, pizza, sweet, etc. doughs but have been rather hesitant because I have been ignorant of certain things, such as when to stop adding flour, what the dough should look and feel like when it is ready and recently to let ingredients come to room temp. You have given me the knowledge and confidence to attempt more daring recipes. You are fun to listen to, you make every recipe an adventure and you are not condescending. Thank you so much for what you do. You have changed my culinary life. I recently made these pumpkin cinnamon rolls and I was delighted that they turned out so well. My friends were amazed and it was great to see the smiles of appreciation when they bit into theirs. Please keep doing what you are doing and I will continue watching and learning. YOU ROCK!

We made these for Thanksgiving and they flew out of the baking dish when they came out of the oven. Everyone loved them. The only thing is, nobody realized they were pumpkin-spiced. This may be due to the fact that I used the 1/2 tsp ground ginger and 1/4 tsp allspice substitution for the 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice. So, if I make these again, I will probably use the pumpkin pie spice. OR I may go for the pumpkin pie filling instead of the plain pumpkin, which I know is expressly forbidden BUT I MAY DO IT ANYWAY.

These turned out great; I made them for my visiting family and they loved them. However, I wanted more actual pumpkin flavor, not just the pumpkin spice flavor. I tried a second batch and after rolling the dough out flat, I put down a layer of canned pumpkin before doing the melted butter and cinnamon/brown sugar mixture, then I rolled it up. It turned out good, and benefited from sitting overnight after baking, they tasted better the next morning; I don't know why.